Accounting to the Girl - working towards a standard for governance in the international development sector
In 2010, Linklaters produced a new report, “Accounting to the Girl”, on behalf of Camfed, analysing its governance model, and examining how good governance can bring about better results and greater benefits to both beneficiaries and donors.
Camfed – the Campaign for Female Education – has the mission of delivering girls’ education and the empowerment of young women as the route to lasting social change in Sub-Saharan Africa. The organisation asked Linklaters to study its governance model, to find out whether, how and why the model works and then to articulate it. The project appealed to us because we believe governance is more than a process. Good governance can bring about better results and greater benefits to all involved, in any sector.
Speaking about the results, Linklaters then Senior Partner David Cheyne said: “Camfed’s model works for two principal reasons. First, it requires Camfed to render account to the girls it supports – much as businesses account to their shareholders, investors or consumers. Second, Camfed’s education and associated social assistance programmes succeed because Camfed gives communities the power and responsibility to run the programmes.”
Camfed Executive Director Ann Cotton said, “We strongly believe this report will make a difference, by promoting debate about whether we should set a standard for governance in the international aid sector. For this reason we – and the sector as whole – are indebted to the support shown by Linklaters in producing the report.”
Linklaters produced the report at no cost to Camfed. Nearly 4,000 hours were spent on the project, involving a team of more than 20 people from the firm’s New York and London offices. The team visited schools in remote areas and government ministries in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi to interview girls, parents, teachers, government officials and village leaders to see how Camfed’s model works in practice.
